Tell my parents I love them

I wrote it at the end of a letter I just sent them – it was a thank-you note from my birthday. Instead of signing it “love, Meredith,” like I’ve usually done – I put “talk to you soon and I love you.”

And it’s in the mailbox already – so this goal is accomplished.

I can’t believe I did it! I didn’t say the words, but I wrote them… which I’ve never done before… and I feel totally good about that. I know how my parents will feel when they read it – I know they’ll understand. YAY!

i come from a very conservative African family. my dad died nine years ago and i had never told him that i loved him. i don’t want to do the same with my mom.

I visited my parents on Saturday, and this wild idea of actually achieving this goal right then and there flashed through my head…

..but I didn’t do it. I’m just so not comfortable with letting my parents in on those sorts of emotions! I wish it wasn’t so difficult—I wish we were just one of those families who’ve always said “I love you” all the time!

I almost feel like it’s just “not me” to tell my parents I love them—like I’m trying to be someone else. But I don’t really think it’s about “me” as a whole. It’s about the person I am around my parents, and of course, that particular social identity is very firmly ingrained! It’s hard to change the way you communicate with a parent when you’ve been doing it (or not doing it) a certain way your entire life.

So when I do this, I’ll be exposing a side of myself that I’m used to keeping hidden from my parents, basically. That’s why it’s so darn irrationally scary.

I feel better seeing that there are others out there who have an issue with this! I’ve basically never said “I love you” to either of my parents. For a long time I thought that was just the way our relationship was, but sometime in the last year or so, I realized it doesn’t have to be that way; maybe I actually could say the words.

I know from reading my baby book that when I was really little, my parents and I used to say “I love you” to each other, but I was so young that I can’t remember it. I just remember being an older child and refusing to say the words. I don’t know when that started or why. My parents kept saying it into my preteen years, I think, and then for some reason, they stopped too. Maybe they thought it was making me uncomfortable. We’ve never talked about it, which is sad because I actually have a great relationship with my parents.

Years later, when I was 20, my boyfriend of four months was wishing me goodbye when suddenly, he told me he loved me. Despite having no memory of ever saying it before, I heard myself say “I love you too.” It was an amazing feeling. Over the next few weeks, I found it really wasn’t hard to say those words in return; the difficult part was overcoming my shyness about spontaneously saying “I love you” to him. I’d be trying to get up the courage to say it, and he’d see the look on my face and smile and say “Is there something on your mind?” But now, three years later, it comes naturally to me with him (although taking the words seriously means a lot to me… I never let myself say them thoughtlessly or reluctantly).

I try my best to make my parents feel loved, and I always sign letters to them with “love”... but I don’t like being unable to say “I love you.” It seems so awkward, especially since they hear me say it to my fiancee.

I’m not sure we’ll ever be the kind of family who expresses our feelings constantly. I’m content without that. But I just want to overcome the weirdness and actually say the words to my parents at least once.

the other day, my sister and i got into a heated argument with my parents, and it resulted in them saying that they wish they never had us. im still extremely upset about it and they wont even look me in the eye. i want to tell them that i love them but im not sure if it will make it better or worse.

please if anybody has any advice for me, i need a response as soon as possible.

It’s hard when you come from a conversative family.

Strangely, I can’t even look at my mom in the eyes lately.

i don’t know why this is so hard, i mean of course i love them i just dunno why its so hard to tell them… and what if they died tomorrow, they could die and not know that i loved them because i dont think ive EVER told them except maybe when i was a little kid…
i hope they do know that i love them… :(

My mom isn’t here any more but I tell my daddy every time I talk to him. I talk to him almost every day. He is the BEST.

...so I’ve gotten the fist step done! Since I have no idea how to express it to them in English, I go tmy friend to translate a small note I had written to them into Chinese, then I stuck it on a piece of coloured paper, now I just need the courage to give it to them. I’m thinking of sticking it onto their phone in their bedroom before I leave the house one day because I seriously don’t think I could do it in person!

I hope it means what I want it to mean!

Very tough when you werent brought up that way. Me either.

I dont remember ever hearing from those words from my dad. I got a lot of “you know your dad loves you” from my mom.

When my mom got sick we did the same thing, Iloveyous all over the place. Then she got well and it tapered off or tried to.
of his grumpiness even into my mid twenties. He is not the
huggy type so that and an I love you in the same moment was almost too much for the poor old guy.
He froze up like a popsicle.
and there was no “I love you” back. He couldnt get out of there fast enough.

At first it was like hugging an ironing board

I think a small part of me really enjoyed his discomfort.(ok it was a fairly big part, and I am not proud of it) But I persisted, even though at times I wanted to kick him in the shins, and tell him how angry I was at him, and after a while, he started to hug back, and mumble something under his breath.

Now he’s the hugger, he tells me he loves me all the time and I consider him my best friend. Which, if you knew my dad, if nothing short of a miracle. Really.

A couple of months ago he hugged me tight and said, “You know, you taught me how to love, I dont think I reallly knew how to let people know before.”

The best gift I will ever get was that one sentence.

So go give them both a hug and a kiss, tell them that you love them, even it feel strange and keep doing it until it doesnt.
You wont regret it. But you will regret it if you dont.